Great Movies
Magnolia Pictures' virtual screening series, "A Few of Our Favorite Docs," continues today with the premiere of Gabriela Cowperthwaite's 2013 muckraking doc about the captivity of killer whales, "Blackfish" (watch it here). As with each of the films in this series, which began on May 15th with Betsy West and Julie Cohen's "RBG" and continued on May 22nd with Steve James' "Life Itself," "Blackfish" will be available to rent starting on the day of its premiere. Once the film has been purchased, viewers will have up to 30 days to begin watching it, but once they start playing the documentary, they have 72 hours to complete it. Each film also has a virtual Q&A on the Wednesday following their premiere, while ten percent of the ticket sales are being donated to a charity of the filmmakers' choice. Cowperthwaite will participate in a Q&A here on Wednesday, June 3rd.
The final week of the series begins on Friday, June 5th, with Penny Lane's 2019 "Hail Satan?", a satirical and provocative celebration of The Satanic Temple (the film can be rented here). Lane will be in conversation with the Temple's head Lucien Greaves here on Wednesday, June 10th. For these last two films, the charity will be GiveDirectly's COVID relief fund (donate here).
Viewers can also still rent "RBG" (here) and "Life Itself" (here), as well as watch the Q&A that aired this past Wednesday where one of the subjects of "Life Itself", RogerEbert.com publisher Chaz Ebert, joined director Steve James, musical guest Clem Snide (who wrote the song "Roger Ebert" embedded below) and moderator Scott Mantz (you can view their chat in full here). Chaz Ebert designated donations to go to the Chicago Cinema Workers Fund to help hourly workers who have had their jobs eliminated during the Coronavirus Pandemic. To donate directly to the fund click here. The charity selected by the "RBG" filmmakers was NYU Langone's food pantry, The Table (donations can be made here).
For more info, including a complete list of the participating venues, click here.
